Abstract [en]

Abstract

Purpose: Important for house manufacturers is to keep track of specific customer preferences and priorities to have products that matches these. If a manufacturer does not have a product that fits the customer priorities, manufacturers will lose customers both before and during the process has started. The goal of the study is to report what house manufacturers should prioritize in the floor plan design of prefabricated two-storey houses.

Method: The study has been conducted with a variety of methods. In order to study customer preferences and priorities a survey was made for potential house byers and interviews with house manufacturers sales agents. To get an overview about the changes that are most commonly performed, an analysis of documents on two of Götenehus house models was made.

Findings: The results of the study show the kitchen's high priority among potential house buyers. Clearly shows that, above all, the social spaces in the form of kitchen living and dining room is generally very high priority among the general population In Stockholm. The study also shows that these rooms were desired with a relatively large surface area. It was also very unusual for these rooms to get reduced space.

Unlike the social spaces, the private spaces hade ha wide range of demands. Above all, the bathroom and the master bedroom had highly prioritized. The other bedrooms were however generally one of house buy’ers lowest priority. In general, the service areas were shown to be the lowest prioritised rooms. The laundry room was desired to be large with great storage units, but were rarely executed as wanted.

Implications: The social space, master bedroom and the bathroom has a great importance for customers in Stockholm County. House manufacturers should prioritize these rooms. In contrast, house manufacturers should not prioritize room as office and WC/D. Doing so, house manufacturers can offer customers a product that minimizes the impact on costs by changes.

Limitations: The study deals only with prefabricated detached two-storey houses. The study does not include factors such as finance, property space or family constellations. The study was limited to the Stockholm County because of the concentrated market for two-storey house. The gathered information was not extracted prior ten years.